A goal of many modem long haul optical transport systems is to provide for the efficient transmission of large volumes of voice traffic and data traffic over trans-continental distances at low costs. Various methods of achieving these goals include time division multiplexing (TDM) and wavelength division multiplexing (WDM). In time division multiplexed systems, data streams comprised of short pulses of light are interleaved in the time domain to achieve high spectral efficiency, high data rate transport. In wavelength division multiplexed systems, data streams comprised of short pulses of light of different carrier frequencies, or equivalently wavelength, are co-propagate in the same fiber to achieve high spectral efficiency, high data rate transport.
The transmission medium of these systems is typically optical fiber. In addition there is a transmitter and a receiver. The transmitter typically includes a semiconductor diode laser, and supporting electronics. The laser may be directly modulated with a data train with an advantage of low cost, and a disadvantage of low reach and capacity performance. After binary modulation, a high bit may be transmitted as an optical signal level with more power than the optical signal level in a low bit. Often, the optical signal level in a low bit is engineered to be equal to, or approximately equal to zero. In addition to binary modulation, the data can be transmitted with multiple levels, although in current optical transport systems, a two level binary modulation scheme is predominantly employed.
Consequently the data propagates through the optical fiber as a short pulse. One of the impairments that this pulse can suffer is its spreading, or dispersion, in time. Excessive pulse spreading resulting from dispersion will cause interference between adjacent bits at the receiver. Dispersion can occur for a variety of reasons both linear and nonlinear. In multimode fiber, different transverse modes propagate different effective distances, to cause modal dispersion. Consequently optical transport over any appreciable distance is accomplished using single mode fiber. Chromatic dispersion of the pulse occurs because the index of refraction of the glass fiber varies with frequency. Since a short data pulse is comprised of a band of frequencies, chromatic dispersion causes pulse shape distortion and spreading as the different spectral components of the data pulse propagate at different velocities in the fiber. In modem optical transport systems this dispersion, or pulse spreading must be periodically corrected, while comprehending the effect of pulsewidth on the nonlinear impairments in the fiber.
Correcting for chromatic dispersion is therefore an important engineering challenge in optical transport systems. As the reach or capacity of a long haul optical transport system increases, so do the requirements on dispersion compensation. Dispersion compensation is accomplished by adding lengths of fiber to positively or negatively correct for dispersion. For ultra long haul optical transport systems, dispersion compensation must be done quite often, and must be done with great precision. This precision creates a logistical challenge to ensure the correct dispersion compensation is available at time of installation. Currently dispersion compensators are highly customized, and are not designed to alleviate this logistical challenge. There is a need for flexible dispersion compensators that are settable to a precise dispersion compensation value upon installation.
A second challenge that arises with ultra long haul transport systems is that there physical plant extends over thousands of kilometers. In current optical transport systems inventory and configuration data is recorded manually. There is a need for the automated recording of dispersion configuration data in particular in optical transport systems.
It is an object of this invention to teach an improved method and apparatus for measuring dispersion that does not suffer from these limitations in accuracy and precision. It is a further object of this invention to provide a compact apparatus that makes a chromatic dispersion measurement in only a few seconds.